Venezuela, 2005

At the end of the first five years of the third

millennium, this Organization must go through a phase

of maturity after sixty years of life, enough time to

have formed a collective understanding of the major

problems still facing mankind and to find the most

effective ways to address them. Recent facts show that

this is the reality that we shall have to deal with for

some time in the future.

There are many challenges facing the United

Nations, both internal and global problems. By way of

illustration, I should like to refer to two of those

challenges: one internal, namely, the much-needed

democratization of this Organization and the other

external, the problem of poverty, which is the most

important, growing and alarming problem of

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contemporary society. I should like to invite all

delegations to give these two problems careful thought.

Democracy, at the current stage of human

development, is the highest form of political

organization. Democracy, owing to its very nature and

as a vital condition, implies the equal exercise of rights

as the ideal way to reach the best possible living

conditions. What is valid for one country taken

individually applies even more to organizations in

which many sovereign nations are represented, all with

equal rights.

The United Nations is the most emblematic case

in the modern society of nations. As a result, it should

be the true embodiment and example of the equal

exercise of democratic rights. If we agree on this basic

principle, one question immediately comes to mind: is

this Organization a democratic institution? Are its

practices useful, as we have seen in very recent

decisions adopted by a small number of Members in a

document presented in the first meeting? Is this a

useful example of a transparent democratic exercise on

the part of the sovereign nations represented here?

The answer, regrettably, is a resounding “no”. On

the contrary, what we have seen is a dangerous process

in which oligarchies are being built, where a small

group of countries usurp the right to take decisions

without taking into account the vast majority of

countries that ultimately represent the overwhelming

majority of the global population. This is what usually

happens with matters affecting the fate of billions of

human beings.

For those reasons, when we talk about reform, the

first thing to do is to define the nature of this reform,

which can have no other goal than the democratization

of this Organization. That means giving decision-

making power in fundamental matters to the General

Assembly and ending once and for all the

Organization’s oligarchic and, very often, autocratic

practices, which diminish its authority in the eyes of

the world.

In our humble but firm opinion, this is the major

challenge the Organization faces internally. Its very

existence depends on the successful resolution of this

issue. We have no doubt about that, and let us not

doubt it.

In the external sphere, the most important

challenge lies in the agonizing escalation that daily

traps millions of human beings living in poverty.

Poverty — as we have heard here in many statements —

is the result of an unjust system of distribution of the

earthly goods of men that therefore denies men any

spiritual value. It is an unfair system of distribution

that stems from a distorted matrix whose dominant

force is a ruthless thirst for profit and in which

growing wealth is based on the expansion and

deepening of poverty. This is the reality that we see

day after day, not only, to the surprise of many, in the

so-called poor countries, but also in countries where

opulence is obscenely on display, every second,

through the mass media, attracting millions of people

who are trying to improve their living conditions, only

to crash into a wall raised by those who preach market

freedom and the free movement of capital but who do

not tolerate the movement of human beings except

when they are needed as a labour force to further

expand their wealth.

This is the painful truth that the tragedy of

Katrina has revealed. It is a painful reality that has

profoundly shaken all of those for whom nothing about

human beings is strange, wherever it may occur.

These problems should have become the focal

points of the entire document that was approved in a

strange “consensus” — a word I do not hesitate to

place between quotation marks. Little attention has

been paid to this drama. But the drama is there; it is

boiling across the world. That generates instability,

because if there is one thing that human society is not

made for, it is suicide. It seeks desperate forms of

survival, and that is why, as the great Peruvian Cesar

Vallejo said once, it lights its captive torch and prays

angrily. These are days of suffering but also days of

anger in many parts of the world, and that generates

instability. If we want stability in the world, let us

apply social justice, a new system of distribution

among regions and a new system of solidarity for

distribution within nations that cannot be limited to

charity or assistance often delivered under humiliating

conditions.

There are many ideas that bring us to this

meeting, I am sure. On some of the most important

problems we have already defined our position in

previous statements. We will continue doing so in this

session. For the time being, we would simply add a

basic item: how difficult it is to realize man’s

democratic dream when man finds himself prevented

from satisfying his most basic conditions for a life of

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dignity: health, nutrition, a roof over his head and the

opportunity to enjoy basic rights.

We trust in the wisdom of the peoples and the

new leadership that through its voice speaks for silent

millions. We trust in the struggle of those who, as the

great Martí said, have thrown in their lot with the poor

of the earth. Thus some day, in the not-so-distant

future, we will find ourselves in a better world, with a

life worth living and a United Nations strengthened by

the essential values of men and women of dignity, who

are the majority on this planet.